There is a growing body of evidence that, clinically, abortion has serious consequences. It is further becoming obvious that abortion has ingrained in the culture an attitude toward others that invites all manner of violence. Perhaps part of the reason for this is society's denial that abortion kills people.

The current issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology published a fascinating study regarding the various causes of premature birth. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00029378 Among those causes, Professor Jay D. Iams of Ohio State reports that "elective terminations [abortions] in the first and second trimesters are associated with a very small but apparently real increase in the risk of subsequent spontaneous preterm birth (PTB)."

The latest report is but one in a very long series of clinical studies that has shown that abortion can be the forerunner to premature birth as well as various types of disabilities http://www.all.org/newsroom_judieblog.php?id=3063 in children born subsequent to an abortion. This is critical information that should be available to all expectant mothers. It is factual evidence that should be provided without prejudice since every expectant mother has a right to know the truth. If at least some of those contemplating abortion were given all of the facts regarding the deleterious effects of abortion — not only on their bodies but on the bodies of the future preborn children they might wish to carry to term — they might change their minds and choose to carry their babies to term instead of abort.

In another report this past week, we read that the remains of a pregnant teenager http://cbs2.com/local/Missing.Teens.Body.2.1844837.html were found in a landfill just two days before police had planned to end a two-month search for her body. The 17-year-old expectant mother, Anyssia Escamilla, was murdered by her boyfriend because she refused to abort their baby.

This sort of dastardly crime is but one of the fruits of the abortion culture in which we live. It proves the age-old proverb that violence begets violence. Such acts result from a misconception among many in our culture that abortion is exclusively a "woman's right." These ideas are mouthed by those who tell America that abortion is just a choice and will have no serious consequences on anyone other than the woman [mother] exercising her choice.

It is obvious that, in Anyssia's case, her choice not to kill resulted in her murder. Sadly this is not an isolated incident.

Advocacy of abortion has serious consequences. Abortion is not a mere surgical procedure; it is a grizzly act of killing. It is violent, it is obscene and a society that accepts it has already become capable of all manner of evil. Anyssia's murder and that of her preborn child are but one example.

In the same way that aborting a child can result in a future child being born too early and suffering because of it, so too the idea of abortion as a solution to a problem can be the seed bed for crimes of other types. There is nothing good about abortion.

So when someone makes the statement, "I'm not pro-abortion. I'm pro-choice," he has deceived himself and everyone else. Whether it is the expectant mother who chooses death for her preborn child or the expectant father who murders his family because he chooses abortion while his partner does not, there are serious consequences to aborting the truth by denying that pro-choice is exactly the same as pro-abortion. A play on words does not make murder any less of a threat than it is.

In championing the pro-life position, we simply say that between life and death, there is no third thing. You are either alive or you are not. Abortion kills or it does not. It is morally permissible or it is not. There are simply some things that do not admit of a "neutral" third position. Between these two opposed possibilities, there can only be "confrontation," distasteful as that may be to some sensibilities.

If every expectant mother understood the truth about her dignity, her baby's dignity as a human being and why her responsibilities extend to this child as well, we would be a long way down the road to restoring a culture of life.

But as long as mainstream America argues that the abortion "choice" affects nobody but the chooser, human beings are going to die, families are going to be destroyed, subsequent children are going to suffer and all manner of sadness is going to plague our nation. What else can we expect?

Judie Brown

Judie Brown is president and co-founder of American Life League, the nation's largest grassroots pro-life educational organization... (more)

Judie Brown is president and co-founder of American Life League, the nation's largest grassroots pro-life educational organization.

She has served three terms as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life in Rome. Daily Catholic cited her as one of the top 100 Catholics of the 20th century.

Judie has appeared on 20/20, 60 Minutes, Mother Angelica Live, The O'Reilly Factor, Good Morning America, Today, Oprah, and Larry King Live, as well as hundreds of other television and radio talk shows. Her comments regularly appear in major print media nationwide, and she has written numerous editorial pieces for magazines and newspapers, including The Washington Post and USA Today.

Judie is married to Paul A. Brown, and they have three children and nine grandchildren. She and her husband have been involved in the pro-life movement since 1969.